Book Image

Going the Distance with Babylon.js

By : Josh Elster
Book Image

Going the Distance with Babylon.js

By: Josh Elster

Overview of this book

Babylon.js allows anyone to effortlessly create and render 3D content in a web browser using the power of WebGL and JavaScript. 3D games and apps accessible via the web open numerous opportunities for both entertainment and profit. Developers working with Babylon.js will be able to put their knowledge to work with this guide to building a fully featured 3D game. The book provides a hands-on approach to implementation and associated methodologies that will have you up and running, and productive in no time. Complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and links to fully working self-contained code snippets, you’ll start by learning about Babylon.js and the finished Space-Truckers game. You’ll also explore the development workflows involved in making the game. Focusing on a wide range of features in Babylon.js, you’ll iteratively add pieces of functionality and assets to the application being built. Once you’ve built out the basic game mechanics, you’ll learn how to bring the Space-Truckers environment to life with cut scenes, particle systems, animations, shadows, PBR materials, and more. By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to structure your code, organize your workflow processes, and continuously deploy to a static website/PWA a game limited only by bandwidth and your imagination.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Part 1: Building the Application
7
Part 2: Constructing the Game
13
Part 3: Going the Distance

Summary

We’ve seen a lot of new things on our trip through the BJS Metatropolis. We’ve heard of new wonders under construction but ready for business, such as VR and AR with WebXR. To help developers make use of these wonders, we learned about how Babylon.js offers the WebXRExperienceHelper. Working in conjunction with the FeaturesManager, it allows developers to code with confidence against a rapidly evolving and changing standard.

Babylon.js is a project that places backward compatibility as one of its cornerstone principles, and so as hardware improves – or more products open up their hardware to WebXR APIs – capabilities will “light up” as browser vendors add support. While it would be great to include iOS (and WebKit) in the supported application list today for WebXR, and while we can lament for a world that could have been, applications using Babylon.js will be ready to best take advantage when that day finally does arrive.

Until...